I don't expect Rush to live much longer either. He reminds me of Elvis in his last days, but it's even stranger than that. The worst part of this is that after Limbaugh is gone, his fans will make him a martyr and claim that "the liberal media hounded him to death". Give me a break - this guy is not Princess Di who really was hounded to death by the media. Limbaugh is the only one responsible for his problems. Even my conservative father has no use for Limbaugh - although he does agree with some of Rush's ideas. If my Republican Dad can see thru Limbaugh, why can't other conservatives do the same?

what it's like to be a teenager? The more something pisses off adults, the better it is! If any of the kids in the article read the comments here about too tight clothing being tacky, they would cheer and say "So the grown-ups in Salon have a problem with the way I look - good for me!"

I'm sorry, but I don't see why you all are so bothered by this. Global warming, the war in Iraq - those are issues that people should be bugged about. If you don't like seeing "muffin tops" or "love handles" poking out of clothes, just find something else to look at. If she isn't concerned about her fat ass hanging out of her jeans, you shouldn't give a shit either!

You say that women will never be free of demands that society places on them to conform to a certain body size or that men will never be free of the pressure to earn lots of money. Hello - are you not aware that our society can and will change, although admittedly, such changes take a lot of time. If you don't believe me, take a look at the Civil Rights movement. Until the 1960s, many blacks were denied the right to vote, and today we have a Secretary of State who is not only black but also a woman. Granted, many African-Americans are not as well off as they should be, but they are a hell of lot better off today than if they had just sucked up and accepted their fate in the 1950s and just said "oh well, life is a bittersweet symphony" like you are saying women should do.

I'm sorry that I did not tell you off 2 days off when this story was fresh, but I was out of town for a few days. Our daughter went to Ozzfest and heard System of a Down scream about how fucked up our world is. Now I hope and pray that at least a few of the 18,000 who attended will actually do something about the conditions that SOAD bitched about, and not just tolerate the world's shit like you advise.

that "there's more than one way to skin a cat", as the old saying goes. Some people age poorly, others do quite well in their later years. I will be 47 in September, so of course it's only a little more than 3 years until I reach the dreaded "five-oh", the half-century mark.

Will I be happy at that stage of my life? Like everything else, it's all up to me. If I piss and moan all the time, like many of the other letter writers here, then it will suck royally. On the other hand, if I have a positive attitude and tune out negativity from others, I will do all right. The bad news is that in our society, people can not imagine enjoying life after a certain age. During their youth, they see their Grandparents complaining and suffering from poor health, and this forms an indelible impression that does not budge, regardless of all evidence to the contrary. Fortunately, not every Grandparent is such a pain in the ass. I was very blessed to have spent much of my childhood seeing my father's parents running around in their 60s with the energy of 25-year-olds. Which is probably why I'm a junior member of the Red Hat Society (an organization primarily of women over 50)today, when most women my age believe that the 50th birthday is a kiss of death and would not touch the Red Hat Society with a 10 foot pole. That's their loss - the Red Hatters are a real hoot!

and fewer articles about male/female relationships in Broadsheet would make Salon a better web site! Friends are vital to our mental health, and yet it's hard to find information on this subject. I tried googling "friends" on Yahoo once, and it came back with a bunch of web sites about dating and finding romantic relationships. I have also tried googling "roommate" (hopefully, a roommate is also a friend, you're in trouble if yours is not) and it came back with a bunch of stuff about college roommates, including a lot of things about that old urban legend about automatically getting an "A" if your roommate dies during the semester. The Internet is letting us down here, even though things like chat rooms and Yahoo groups are a nice (but not perfect) way to socialize. I signed up for Friendster.com, but have never gotten the hang of that site. I think that you have to be introduced to other people on there, but don't understand exactly how I'm supposed to go about it. That's really the problem with friends anywhere these days. No one remembers how to go about it.